And now as he pushed the ball up the field the crowd collectively rose to their feet in anticipation. The coach had seen him like this before and liked what he saw; his brilliant striker was playing loose and aggressive today.
When you step onto the pitch, do you bring your whole game with you? Do you come to play soccer or are you playing tentatively because you've let the importance of the game get to you? Or maybe you're too focused on the size or skill level of the opponent or the fact that there are scouts in the stands.
Coming in from the right wing the striker put a great move on the last defender leaving just the keeper between him and a much-needed score. The keeper came out to try to cut his angle off just as the striker let go a laser of a shot off his right foot. The ball rocketed towards the goal and seemed to have the goalie beat. The keeper then made a lunging, diving effort and miraculously got two fingers on the ball, barely deflecting it into the post and, with a "somebody-is-watching out-for-me bounce", luckily out of play. What a tough break! They were so close to tying the score. As play continued it was obvious that something had shifted. The striker seemed just a little less loose. He seemed to be pressing more, trying too hard. Shortly after this missed goal he made an uncharacteristic mistake losing the ball on a poorly executed pass. This got him even more upset with himself and he started yelling at himself while the game went on.
Do you know that your physical game is always limited by your mental one?
One big mental trap that a lot of soccer players stumble into is the inability to deal with mistakes, bad breaks or lousy calls. If you can't quickly and gently let go of these in the course of play you'll mentally take yourself right out of the game. Carrying your mistakes around with you is the best strategy to get you to play crummy soccer. Dwelling on your mistakes while the game is going on is a big mental "no-no" that will hurt you and your team.
As the game progressed the striker was clearly a lesser force on the field. Because he was preoccupied with his mistakes and failure to score, he was out of the flow of the game. He stopped being vocal and he stopped being a positive leader. As a consequence, his team's offense began to sputter and the opponent's began to dominate the ball. Despite this, our striker couldn't stop mentally beating himself up! With 5 minutes to play the other team scored an insurance goal and went on to win.
So how important is your mental toughness and sports psychology to playing championship soccer? Plenty! As far as sports psychology goes it's quite simple. Given that you've paid your physical dues, are in good shape and have a decent technical & tactical knowledge of the game, the difference between you playing well or playing poorly is in between your ears!
Our hero in this story was clearly lacking two things:
First, the ability to forgive himself. You will not play good soccer if you emotionally beat yourself up whenever you screw up. Doing that will only make you more tense and kill your confidence;
Second, the ability to quickly return his focus to the game and the task at hand. To be mentally tough you must learn to discipline yourself to immediately refocus after mistakes or setbacks. "Reboundability" is a key mental toughness skill needed to keep your mind in the flow of the game. Understand there's a proper time and place to work on your mistakes and it's not during the game. Wait for practice to think about and work on your miscues.
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